Spotlight: Nupoor. Or, What’s in a job title?

By Nupoor Rajkumar

When I walked into the Focus Lab office, I immediately knew I wanted to work here.

The space is modern and sleek, yet friendly. And sooo welcoming (the bean bags and stocked refrigerator are quite honestly enough to make me happy, just saying).

On my second visit, I met with Erik to talk about the details of my internship. He doesn't believe in job titles, so they'd decided to call me a "Production Assistant," but it was just a title for the sake of having a title. In actuality, there would be no limit to my tasks and responsibilities. I love the idea of being able to do more than just one thing. Most designers today are multidisciplinary and collaborative. I am one of those designers. Why confine yourself to one aspect of design when you can do so much more?

Branding is something I love, UX/UI is my latest interest, and writing is something I've been doing since I was little. Focus Lab specializes in all of the above, and in abundance. So what better place for me to work and learn? I hope I get the chance to do some actual client work, but observation alone will teach me a great deal.

I hail from a country where job titles are sometimes given too much importance. But there again, I got lucky. After completing an undergraduate degree in Visual Communication, I worked at an advertising agency called Rubecon Creative where, in spite of being an "Intern" and then a "Junior Visualizer," they let me dip my feet in as many fields as possible. I worked on branding, some UI, lots of newspaper advertisements, packaging, copywriting, you name it.

Currently, I am studying at the Savannah College of Art and Design. I have two quarters left to finish my graduate degree in Graphic Design. Even at school, I dabble in as many different classes as I possibly can. Not wanting to limit myself to just Graphic Design, I've taken classes in Service Design and Interaction Design as well. I aspire to be a "Social Designer" and use my skills in the above fields to help society and growing communities. With this goal in mind, I joined forces with Kathy Fritz to work a bit with Creatom Builder over the summer. They are a company that trains teachers in Design Thinking methods-something I find very intriguing. Kathy took one look at my portfolio and said, "Have you approached Focus Lab?" She showed me the website and told me that she thought we'd make a good match.